


Not Just Another Selfie

by ladydeathfaerie



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Everybody Lives, Mention of blood, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, brief talk of Phil's hand and how he's coping, mild violence, some mild language, there are more than those four characters in the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 16:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5423357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladydeathfaerie/pseuds/ladydeathfaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the fall of SHIELD and the birth of HYDRA, Nick Fury has dedicated himself to tracking down HYDRA and finding stranded SHIELD agents left in the cold. He keeps contact with Phil Coulson and the rest of SHIELD through a series of selfies. Each selfie tells Phil where Nick is. When a selfie that shows Nick's entire face comes in to an emergency phone, Phil and his team set out to find out where HYDRA is holding Nick. They're going to get him back, no matter what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Just Another Selfie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dazzledfirestar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dazzledfirestar/gifts).



> the inspiration for Nick sending selfies (and how they look) comes from Samuel L. Jackson's real life selfies. as the tags state, this fic doesn't follow completely follow canon. it does make use of the canon set forth in "Captain America: Winter Soldier" but uses only some of the canon set forth in "Agents of SHIELD". mostly i ignored all the deaths because i thought they were stupid and pointless. which explains the tag "everybody lives".

"What is that beeping sound?" Daisy's voice, full of annoyance, followed Phil into his office. She stepped in a moment after he did, her face wearing the same annoyance he'd heard in her words. "Its been going off all afternoon and its driving everyone insane." 

Phil opened his mouth, fully intending to make a smart assed comment. But the urge died when he actually heard the beeping sound that Daisy had been speaking about. He frowned and headed to the desk where he tugged open the very bottom drawer. The phone that came out of the drawer hadn't seen much use. It was a burner phone meant only for use in emergencies. And there was apparently an emergency since the damn thing was going off after months of silence. He glanced at the screen for a moment, looked at the number displayed there, then shifted his attention back to Daisy. "Go find Bobbi and May. I need to talk to them."

Phil expected her to argue with him. Maybe there was something in his voice that stopped her. It could have been something on his face. She didn't say a word. She just nodded at him before turning around and heading right back out the door. 

He waited to check the message on the phone until Daisy returned with the other women. He was pretty sure that Bobbi and May would want to be there when he did. The temptation to get up and pace was strong, but he resisted. Instead, he slumped in his chair and stared at the phone. He was doing his best to keep his mind from turning toward the worst thoughts. He had no idea if the message waiting for him on that phone meant trouble. It could mean something else. It was, after all, an emergency only phone. And there was more than one kind of emergency. But it was hard to keep the darker thoughts at bay. To be honest, the way things had been going lately, he wouldn't be surprised if that message did mean trouble. 

His office was silent, not even the annoying beep to cut the stillness. Seconds ticked by, spent staring at the phone in his hand while he waited. He couldn't stop his brain from heading down all of the darkened alleys and shadowed paths that meant bad things. He was more than certain that's what the phone call meant. But he held onto the dim hope that it was something good. 

Melinda entered the office first. Bobbi was right behind her. Phil saw Daisy and waved her in. "You might as well be in on this, too. I have a feeling." 

"Okay," she nodded, then stepped into the office. The door closed behind her and she moved to stand beside Bobbi. All three women eyed the phone in his hand. He could tell what Bobbi and Melinda were thinking. Daisy looked both expectant and confused. 

It took a couple taps on the keyboard to pull the message on the phone up on the big screen on the wall. When it was there, Bobbi, Melinda, and Daisy turned to stare at the image. It was a photograph, the downward angle of the shot suggesting it was taken on a phone. A familiar face took up a good portion of the foreground. The background was filled with blue sky and the unmistakable sand-ish color of the Sphinx. Between that familiar face and the Sphinx were some camels, a tent or two, and several individuals with their cameras out to take pictures of the ancient structure. There were also two characters in all black staring at the person who took the picture, who were far to close to him for it to be anything other than intentional.

"That's Director Fury," Daisy said, turning to stare at Phil in confusion.

"It is," Phil confirmed. 

"Why is Director Fury taking selfies in Egypt?" she asked.

"Its a method of communication," Bobbi told her. Daisy's gaze swung from Phil to Bobbi, obviously still confused about what the picture meant. Bobbi's eyes cut to Phil for a moment, seeking permission. Phil nodded and went to work opening a file containing a group of photos that Nick had sent in over the past months. "Nick has been hunting HYDRA all over Europe, Asia, and on the African continent. Each time he goes to a new city, he sends us a selfie. Each selfie contains a landmark so that we know where he is and how he's doing." 

Phil began sifting through the photos so that Daisy could see them. None of them ever contained Nick's whole face. Just the top of his head, covered by a knit hat, along the sunglasses that hid his eyes and, more importantly, his scar. One picture was grey clouds and the tall grey stones of Stonehenge. Another showed Buckingham Palace. There was one with Nick before the Parthenon. The Vatican. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Notre Dame. The Taj Mahal. The Forbidden City. The Great Wall of China. Mount Fuji. Phil finally came back to the newest picture.

"Why his so much of his face visible in this picture when you barely saw any of it on the others?" The quality of Daisy's voice suggested she already knew the answer, that she'd figured it out but she just wanted to be sure. 

"Because it means HYDRA caught up to him," Melinda said quietly, a touch of the displeasure and anger she felt leaking into her voice. She walked over to the wall and tapped a finger on each of the men in black. "These two are the real focus of the picture. Not the Sphinx behind them. Nick sent this one to let us know that he'd been spotted. I suspect he took this photo just before they grabbed him. No doubt there were more HYDRA agents there than just these two."

"How do you get all that from a selfie?" 

"We worked out a system," Bobbi offered, her hand making a circular motion to include Phil and Melinda. "Back when HYDRA emerged from within S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America tore everything to the ground. His actions left a lot of agents in the wind with no hope for help. Nick made it his mission to not only hunt down HYDRA, but to seek out those stranded agents. Get them to safety. These selfies are a photographic outline of where he's been." 

Bobbi walked over to the wall where the images were waiting, each one now converted to a thumbnail in order to put all of them together. She gave the appearance of being at ease, but Phil knew her intimately enough to see the tension that pulled her shoulders tight and ran down her spine. She was worried. And with good reason. Injury or not, you didn't get to be the head of an agency like S.H.I.E.L.D. without having some serious skills. If HYDRA had managed to grab Nick... 

She tapped one of the thumbnails at random, opening a picture that showed Nick standing before the stone walls of Edinburgh castle. Again, the top of his head and the upper half of the sunglasses he wore were visible in the photo. "He takes his selfies this way as a safety precaution. It helps keep his identity hidden. When he proposed his plan, we worked this out as a safeguard, so that we'd always know where Nick was and that he was okay. And it let us know that if we ever saw his full face, there was some kind of trouble."

Melinda finished the tale, her eyes sliding from Daisy to Bobbi and then to Phil. "This selfie is Nick's way of telling us that HYDRA has him."

Phil watched Daisy for a reaction, watched as she puzzled her way through all the information she'd just been given. He could tell she knew she was missing something, that there was a part of the story she hadn't been given yet. Daisy was smart. Phil had no doubt that she'd figure it out. The three of them waited in silence as the wheels turned and Daisy shot her glance around the room. Several moments later, she returned her attention to Phil and pinned him with a look. "You're sleeping with Fury. That's why this selfie system is in place. You're sleeping with him and this is how you keep tabs." 

"Nick and I have been in a relationship for a lot of years. There has always been a system in place in case of emergencies. Its changed over the years, adapted to the newest technology. This is the most current version of it." 

Daisy nodded, glanced at the other two women, then brought her gaze back to Phil. "So we're planning a rescue mission. What do we need to do?" 

"First thing is to figure out exactly where HYDRA took Nick," Melinda told her. "We need any photos posted on the web with Nick's face in them. Any video footage that might have him in it. Along with the two men in the newest selfie. We also need any radio chatter that might mention Nick. That's your area of expertise, Daisy. Maybe you can find us enough information to determine where HYDRA is holding him."

"I've already sent all of Nick's selfies to the main server, Daisy. They're in a file under your old name. You've got full access and I'll give you anything else you need. Just let me know if I've forgotten something." 

"You three are going to make battle plans while I dig around the Internet," Daisy commented absently, her brain already shifting into work mode. 

"We are," Phil nodded. Daisy shot him a look that suggested he be careful, then she turned and headed out the door. 

Melinda moved closer to the desk, face a mask. "She's right, Phil. You need to make sure that any plans you make are professional. I know how much you care about Nick, but don't make this about revenge. Make sure it stays about rescuing a fellow agent." Melinda shifted her focus to Bobbi. "That means you, too. Keep it professional."

**~*~**

It took three days for HYDRA to slip up. Three days of Daisy barely sleeping or eating as she scanned every last corner of the Internet for some kind of clue as to where they'd taken Nick. She'd managed, in the first few hours, to trace their steps after grabbing Nick. They'd gone traveled from Egypt to Jordan through Israel. From Jordan, they'd gone north through Syria and Turkey. She'd lost their trail once they'd hit Georgia, but that had been a minor inconvenience for her. She'd camped out with her laptop and headphones and simply waited.

Daisy's diligence had paid off in the form of a brief phone call. A phone call during which they'd mentioned Nick by name. After that, it hadn't taken Daisy long to trace the call to its location of origin. An archipelago off the northern coast of Russia called Novaya Zemlya, in the mountains on Severny. Location in hand, they'd set off around the world to burn down one of HYDRA's bases and pull Nick's ass out of the fire. 

They'd made plans while en route, coming up with a way to use the terrain to their advantage during the rescue. Daisy had pinpointed a plausible spot on the island where the base would be located, hidden inside the mountains. It was slightly troubling that the island had once been used for nuclear testing, but that was something they'd deal with after retrieving Nick. There was a small population on the island, so the assumption was that it wasn't dangerous or deadly.

The plan was that there would be two teams. The first one, consisting of Phil, Melinda, Trip, and Bobbi, would go in as quietly as possible. They'd do their best to take out the HYDRA agents between themselves and the cell block on the third level, which was where they were sure Nick was being held. The second team would be made up of Daisy, Mack, Akela, and Mike. They'd only come in if something went wrong and extra power was needed. Phil was taking point, with Melinda bringing up the rear. Guns were to remain holstered in order to avoid attracting attention. 

Bobbi was on Phil's right, batons in hand while an odd mix of calm and nervousness filled her belly. This was just like any other mission, but it wasn't. This was Nick Fury, one of the most talented agents S.H.I.E.L.D. had turned out in a long time. He was smart and he was capable of quick thinking under pressure. He had no problems doing what he felt was right or necessary and he was quite capable of telling the powers that be to go to hell. Being taken by HYDRA was the last thing she'd expected to happen to him. And she shuddered to think what they would do to him simply because he had been the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a good long while.

Contact was minimal, isolated to the occasional lone guard who was quickly dispatched. Daisy had pulled schematics and they'd used infrared to establish where Nick was being held. Bobbi wanted this done, wanted to get Nick back before HYDRA could cause serious harm. She was under no illusion that they were leaving him alone, but she was hopeful that any abuse they'd subjected him to was minor and would heal with a few pain pills and some bed rest. She didn't want to think about what they might find if HYDRA had skipped that stage and gone right into rigorous torture. She knew Nick was tough, but he was still only human. 

They'd only encountered about half a dozen agents by the time they reached the detention cells. A sense of unease had been growing for a while now, leaving Bobbi on edge. Even Phil seemed unsettled. Something about this was very, very wrong.

By the time they were at the door of the cell their scans had determined was housing Nick, Bobbi felt as if she'd been strung tight enough to shatter. Trip looked up and down the empty hallway, then turned to Phil. "There's something wrong here, sir. We barely encountered anyone and it was too easy to get down here to the detention level. This feels like a trap." 

"I have to agree with him, Phil," Melinda said quietly. "Everything about this feels off. Something's wrong here. We need to go." 

" _Phil, I think you should listen to your team and get out of there. The heat signature we had in that room earlier is gone. And there are two large masses of heat signatures coming at you from both sides of the detention level. Get out. Now. Its a trap._ " 

Even as Victoria Hand's cool voice finished echoing down across the comm, a warning siren started going off. It was a loud shrieking sound that could very easily induce a headache. The siren went off for about a minute, then was replaced by a man's voice. It was sharp and forceful, issuing orders in harsh Russian. Bobbi tightened her grip on her batons and turned to face the hallway behind her. "We're about to have company. And they're being encouraged to do some serious damage," she told Phil over her shoulder. 

"Damn it." Phil didn't have to utter the part about it being a trap and that HYDRA had known they were coming. It was obvious he meant it to be there, though. "Victoria, send down the secondary team. We're going to need some serious firepower. And get me a location on Fury. We're not leaving without him."

" _Second team is already on their way. And we're working on finding that location. Be careful down there, Phil._ " Hand's voice cut out just a moment before two groups of HYDRA agents came at them from either side. Bobbi barely had time to register Melinda stepping into the swarming crowd, then she was up to her eyeballs in enemy agents and there was no time to think about anyone else.

Her batons swung back and forth, sometimes connecting with a weapon and sometimes connecting with something softer. There were curses hurled left and right as HYDRA agents poured into the hallway to take the place of their downed compatriots. When Bobbi couldn't get clearance to swing a baton, she simply used her fists, fingers curled around the metal of a baton so that she wouldn't lose it in the midst of fighting. Sometimes, someone would come up behind her, try to pin her arms to her side. In those instances, she used the back of her skull or the heel of her boot to do damage. She heard crunches and cries of pain as she made contact, shattered bone and inflicted pain. 

On the occasions when she could turn, she'd catch sight of one of the others as they engaged HYDRA. Her first visual was Trip, who was using the but of an assault rifle as a battering ram. There was a spot gleaming on his scalp where something had parted the flesh, leaving him bleeding and likely with a minor headache. But it didn't stop him from beating HYDRA back. She caught it as he brought a knee up into an enemy agent's face at the same time that his hands, still wrapped around his rifle, shoved the man's head down. There was a quick spurt of blood, then the man was down on the floor. Even before the man had fully dropped away from him, Trip was turning into the next agent, the butt of his weapon being driven into the man's stomach with extreme prejudice. 

Melinda was next, and Bobbi found she had a moment to simply admire the methodical way May worked through the crowd. Her arms were never still, her legs working in time with the rest of her to turn her entire body into a lethal weapon. There was grace in her movements, almost like watching a ballerina moving through a complicated, delicate piece. Melinda flowed from one move into the next, like water rushing along a riverbed. She made easy work of her opponent, cut him down and moved on to the next one without stopping. 

She saw Phil last, watched as he slugged and punched his way through HYDRA. He didn't have the quiet, liquid grace that Melinda had. Didn't move as quickly as Trip. But he knew what he was about, knew just where to hit to inflict as much damage as he could. He was aided by the tech in his artificial hand, used it to hold agents at bay when he hit them. Or used it to grab them by the throat and throw them away from him. She had a moment to admire that side of him that few people really got to see, when he stepped away from his carefully cultivated nice guy persona and showed just why, and how, he'd made it as high up in S.H.I.E.L.D. as he had. Phil wasn't afraid to hurt people to get what he wanted. And it was obvious he was going to hurt anyone who get in the way of him rescuing Nick. 

Between those glimpses, Bobbi continued pummeling the HYDRA agents that came at her. It felt like their numbers were endless. And it felt like hours had passed since the fight had broken out. She knew that it was a product of the fight itself, and not actual reality. It was more likely that only a handful of minutes had passed since the alarm had sounded. But time had a tendency to slow when you were fighting for your life. 

" _Fire in the hole!_ " The announcement filled the comm a moment before Bobbi felt the ground beneath her feet rumble ominously. 

"Reinforcements are here. Everyone down!" Phil ordered. As one, the four of them dropped to the ground. Moments later, one of the heavy stone walls exploded to allowed the second team into the hallway. Mike came through first, the tech attached to his body gleaming dully in the dim lights. Three HYDRA agents rushed him in an effort to stop him, but two of them went flying almost as soon as they touched him. Akela was next, hands curled into loose fists as she headed toward the nearest goon. Daisy and Mack stepped through together. Mack was carrying an axe, his mouth twisted in a frown that made him look scarier than he was. Daisy put her powers aside for the moment and fell back on her training, shifting into a complex series of fight moves that she'd learned while sparring with Melinda.

Second later, Bobbi was back on her feet, batons screwed together to form a staff and held before her as she started in on the thinning enemy. 

" _We have a location for you, Phil,_ " Maria's voice over the comm sounded abrupt and curt. Bobbi could hear a lot of talking from the other end, letting her know that something was going on. " _Two floors down. There was some tech that prevented us from reading that far into the base, but its been disabled. I would hurry and finish up, if I were you. The skies around us are getting busy._ "

"You're sure about this new location, Hill?" Phil asked, voice strained as he pushed against the agent he was presently fending off.

" _Director Fury is being held two levels down, sir,_ " Sitwell chimed in. The certainty in his words were hard to miss. " _I did the scans myself. Three times. They say he's two sections over. If you head to your left, there's a staircase at the end of the hall. Take it down two levels, go through the door, then follow the hallway to the right. You won't be able to miss the detention cells there. But hurry. We have a situation up here._ " 

"On our way. Have transport ready. And have a med team on standby. We don't know what kind of shape Director Fury is in." Phil ordered. He sent his gaze up the hall to find the door Sitwell had mentioned, then he turned it the other way and located Mike. "I need you to hold them up so we can get out of here, Mike." 

"I think I have something that will work. We just need to get them all together," Mike replied. He began inching back toward the center of the hallway. The others followed suit, each of them pulling back until they were crowded close to one another. Trip and May kept an eye on the hall behind them. "Daisy, if you'd give me a hand here." 

Bobbi watched as Daisy moved forward, her hands already coming up as she made ready to push together every last one of the agents who remained standing. There was a moment of nothing, then they watched as HYDRA agents tumbled over one another as if they were fallen leaves caught by a gust of wind. When they were all against the far end of the corridor, Mike took aim at the ceiling. Even as he was firing whatever weapon it was HYDRA had supplied him with, Daisy turned to face the other end of the hall, moved up to stand beside Trip and Melinda. 

She used the same trick with them as she had with the first bunch, pushing the remaining HYDRA agents up against the wall. This time, she did it just hard enough that they hit their heads on the wall and were rendered senseless. There was a rumble of noise behind them, letting Bobbi know that Mike was done doing what he'd planned on doing. "Let's go. Daisy, I want you to take point with May. Mike, you and Mack bring up the rear. Eyes and ears open, people," Phil ordered. 

Melinda and Daisy took up their positions, as did Mike and Mack. Everyone else fell into line between them. Bobbi shot a look toward Phil. His face was smeared with blood and dirt, and it looked like he was going to have a bruise on his cheek. He otherwise appeared uninjured. His gaze found hers, as if he knew she'd been looking at him, and he offered her a soft smile. It helped ease just a bit of the ache in her heart. 

"We're going to find him, Bobbi. We'll find him and we'll bring him home."

**~*~**

Nick had been in plenty of sticky situations over the course of his career, plenty of occasions where he'd thought he wasn't going to make it out. The last time he'd had that feeling, the Winter Soldier had been taking pot shots at his SUV. This didn't feel like one of those situations to him. Not yet, at any rate. Right now, it was more of an inconvenience than anything else. But that could change quickly. HYDRA wanted information from him and, so far, he'd stubbornly kept his mouth shut. But that wouldn't last much longer. The moment they graduated from their fists to something harder and harsher, it would become that much more difficult to keep his mouth closed.

He'd tried to explain to them that he was no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., that he was dead as far as the world was concerned. He didn't think they were buying it, if the swelling along the edge of his jaw was any indication. Of course, if they hit him in the mouth again, he wasn't going to be able to say much of anything. Another good fist to the jaw would probably end up requiring having his jaw wired shut. 

All he could do was sit and wait and hope that Coulson had gotten his last message. He couldn't be sure the email had gone through. The goons following him had snagged him just as he'd hit the send button and they'd taken his phone. Then again, there was no guarantee that Phil would be able to find him if even if he had gotten the message. Most of the agents here spoke Russian and that didn't bode well at all. Quietly, resolutely, he began going over the plan he'd made for getting himself out of here if the situation arose. 

A loud noise out in the hall put an end to his plans. Sounded like one hell of a commotion, too. Grunts and groans and the occasional sound of flesh slapping flesh. For a moment, he had to wonder who would dare have sex in the hallway of a HYDRA compound. Then he realized that what he was hearing was the sound of fists meeting bodies and he decided that he'd gotten punched more than enough. But the noise from outside his cell suggested that he didn't have to worry about that anymore, that help had arrived. 

"This is a biometric lock. We can't go around that." The quiet voice just on the other side of the door belonged to Melinda. A flood of relief washed through Nick. He almost sagged in his bonds, then thought better of it because nearly every inch of him hurt. 

"I can," a voice said. A moment later, there was a loud noise, metal scraping against metal, and the door was pulled free of its frame. Phil was the first through the door, with Bobbi and Melinda not far behind him. Nick tried for a smile, but the swelling along his jaw throbbed and suggest that that was a stupid thing to do. 

"Mike, would you dispose of these chains for me?" Phil asked. 

"Yes, sir." Nick could barely make out the figure who came into the room then, his eye nearly completely swollen shut from a good punch. But he could see enough to recognize the scarred face of Mike Peterson. The young man offered him a brief smile, then stepped behind him. There was a metallic clank, then the manacles that kept his arms bound to the sides of the chair were gone. After that, he tackled the ones that kept Nick's legs bound to the chair's legs. 

Phil was at his side then, one hand resting on his shoulder. "Can you stand?" 

"Probably," Nick answered. Then he gave a slight shake of his head. "But there's no way I'm walking out of here on my own. I'm going to need a hand." 

Even before Phil could say anything more, Nick saw one of the figures in the room move toward him. "I've got him, sir," a deep voice said. It took a few to dig through everything in his befuddled brain, but Nick finally figured out that it was Alphonso Mackenzie speaking. Then the man was helping Nick to his feet. 

"I'd appreciate it if you'd give Mack a hand, Akela," Phil said. 

"Of course, sir," the woman answered. A moment later, she was standing by Nick's other side and she slipped an arm around his back. 

"May. Daisy. Take point again. Mike, Trip. You've got our backs," Phil ordered. "Hill, we've got Nick and we're on our way out. Where do we need to go?" 

Nick didn't hear the answer. He didn't need to hear the answer. Phil had it all under control. Nick took a moment to offer up thanks to whatever god might be listening. He was very happy to know that his message had gotten through. Even happier that Phil had been able to use it to find Nick and get him out. And then he had to abandon those thoughts and turn his focus toward moving his feet so that he wasn't dead weight as Mack and Akela helped him out of the cell and up the hall. 

Oddly, they met little resistance as Daisy and Melinda led them up one hall and down another toward the extraction point. Nick concentrated hard on not letting the pain get to him until they were out of there. He didn't want to be a burden to anyone in the event of a fight. But it appeared that was a worry he needn't have bothered with. He didn't know what they'd done to keep the enemy at bay, but no one seemed especially eager to get too close to them. Which meant that their group made it to the extraction point with little resistance. 

A quinjet was there to pick them up, which Nick thought a little odd. But then he realized that Phil had brought the helicarrier with him instead of his plane. He heard mutterings of trouble but couldn't be assed to open his eye to see what that trouble might be. They weren't in the air for much longer than five minutes before they pulled into dock in one of the carrier's bays. A med team was waiting for them, as well as Maria, Victoria, and Sitwell. 

He wasn't surprised that Hand wanted to know exactly what Nick thought he was doing, as well as a full report on how HYDRA had found him and taken him down. Maria was barking orders to people in the bay and on the bridge, instructing them to get the helicarrier out of there and on the double. Sitwell was very effusive in telling Nick that he was glad to see him and happy Nick was back safe and sound. Nick took it all in stride. He told Hand that he'd talk to her after he'd had a chance to rest up and eat. He thanked Jasper for his concern and told him he was happy to see him. He just smiled at Hill and let the med team carry him off to medical so that he could be looked over. 

By the time he saw Phil again, several hours had passed in which he'd been poked, prodded, questioned, and deemed himself. Then he'd been sent off to a private room where he could rest and recuperate in peace and quiet. He'd had something to eat and was dozing lightly when the latch turned and pulled him away from full on sleep. He slitted his eye open to find Phil settling into a chair he'd set down beside the bed. "You look tired, Phil." 

"Its been a long couple of days," Phil admitted with a sigh.

"You should go sleep," Nick suggested. Phil shot him a sour look before reaching out to take one of Nick's hand with his good one. Nick's gaze slanted toward Phil's other hand, encased in black and resting on his thigh. 

"I'll sleep later. I had to come make sure you were really okay," Phil told him. 

Nick huffed out a soft laugh. "And they call me stubborn." 

"I'm allowed to come sit with you, Nick. I'm practically married to you." 

"Hey. I asked. You're the one who said it wouldn't be prudent or professional. Don't tell me you've changed your mind." 

"I have. But it isn't an option right now," Phil replied. Nick saw his gaze drop to his lap. 

Nick thought maybe he understood some of Phil's reluctance. They hadn't had much chance to talk about what had happened with Phil's hand, but Nick suspected that it played into things in a big way. That it played into a lot of things in a big way these days. Nick squeezed the hand he held and drew Phil's attention to his face. "How are you adapting?" 

For a moment, it looked like Phil wasn't going to answer. That look that said he was thinking about being stubborn settled onto his face. Nick squeezed his hand again, but let him work through his thoughts without interruption. Finally, Phil sighed and gave his attention to Nick. "Some days, I think I'll be able to cope just fine. I'm still getting used to how it works. And I'm sure that I'll master it eventually. But other days are horrible and I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I hate that I no longer have that hand to actually touch you with. If you put a ring on it, I'd never feel it. It doesn't work the way my hand did and it leaves me feeling clumsy. I feel like everyone's staring." 

Phil didn't put it into words, but Nick suspected the hand made him feel like people thought he was a freak. Nick could understand that. He'd lived a lot of years with the eye patch. He'd heard all the jokes. Things like that, things that stood out as other, made a person self-conscious and cautious. Made a person want to push people away. "It'll get easier, Phil. You might never ever fully get used to it. But you'll get to a point where you don't care so much. But its still new. You need time to adapt to and accept the change." 

Phil snorted, letting Nick know exactly what he thought about that. Nick squeezed his hand, making sure his fingers tightened down enough to draw Phil's attention to him again. "You'll adapt, Phil. You'll accept it. And in the meantime, it does absolutely nothing to change how I feel about you. Certainly not that hand." 

"But it isn't real. You can't like it touching you." There was maybe just a touch of self-loathing in Phil's voice.

It was Nick's turn to sigh. Stubborn ass. "Does my eye change how you feel about me?"

"You know it doesn't," Phil snapped, gaze darkening with his mild burst of anger.

"And your hand doesn't change how I feel about you. Now stop being an idiot and give me a kiss," Nick ordered. Phil huffed a breath and shook his head, then rose from the chair and moved to stand beside Nick's bed. He used his free hand, his prosthetic hand, to steady himself so that he could lean down and take Nick's lips in a kiss that spilled every last bit of emotion Phil was feeling into him. Nick lifted a hand and settled it against the back of Phil's head, urging him closer so that he could deepen the kiss. They might have stayed like that, but a new voice pulled them apart. 

"I hope you saved some of that for me," Bobbi said softly. Nick and Phil broke apart to find her standing a short distance from the bed. Now that the mission was over, she'd let her guard down and her emotions were easy to read on her face. She'd genuinely been afraid for Nick and she, like Phil, was there at his bedside to ensure that he was fine and well. 

Nick tugged his hand from Phil's and held it out to her. Bobbi closed the distance between herself and the bed, took hold of Nick's hand and allowed him to pull her down into a kiss. It was a lingering kiss, filled with all of the things Bobbi wasn't going to say, filled with the fear she'd felt, and filled with the deep love she had for him. When she pulled back, Nick was winded and there was a faint blush staining her cheeks. He grinned up at her. "I'm glad you're okay, Nick. I don't even want to think what Phil and I would do without you if we lost you." 

"You'd go on. But there's no reason to entertain those ideas right now. I'm here and I'm okay and I'm not going anywhere. You two are stuck with me." 

Bobbi smiled and it went straight to her eyes. She leaned in and shared a lingering kiss with Phil, allowed him to put his arm around her while she kept hold of Nick's hand. "No one I'd rather be stuck with," she told him. Then she turned and looked at Phil. "No one at all."

**Author's Note:**

> there were so many things that i know Daz wanted from her fic. i feel like i mostly didn't do any of them, though i did try to touch on one of the things she wanted. i know it isn't as in depth as it could have been and for that, i apologize. still, i hope you like what i came up with.
> 
> as an aside, the island i chose as the location of the HYDRA base is real.


End file.
